Thank you for taking the time to read about our fundraising.

Here is a bit of background about what we are doing, why we are doing it and what we hope to achieve.

Charlotte and Helen both gave up smoking in January 2012, and decided to take up running instead – all very simple. It started with a lot of hyperventilation, excessive sweating and general nausea on our part; swiftly followed by uncontrollable laughter from pretty much everyone who knows us!

Despite this we have persevered, and being naturally competitive we entered into various local events, starting with the Thames 10k, which we managed to complete without keeling over! So, of course then 10k wasn’t enough, so we decided to enter the Reading ½ Marathon, and to raise some money for charity. We continued training, even occasionally being seen out in public wearing lycra, much to the amusement of our friends and family.

In November we heard about some charity London Marathon places that had become available, through Helens brother in law, a long term fundraiser for the VSO. Despite our relative inexperience he encouraged us to take up the places, and has really enthused us to raise money for this wonderful charity.

So, a little about VSO and what they do. Fundamentally VSO is a charity that fights poverty through volunteers. Instead of sending money or food, they bring people together to share skills and knowledge. In doing so, they create lasting change. Their volunteers work in whatever fields are necessary to fight the forces that keep people in poverty – from education and health through to helping people learn the skills to make a living.

When learning about what VSO achieve, this story really stood out for me (Helen) particularly as a parent: In Sierra Leone 1 in 8 mothers die in childbirth. VSO brought midwife Alice Waterman together with health workers to share her skills, their health service is woefully undertrained, as they have been robbed of most of their staff by 11 years of civil war. Alice has been training up to 70 health workers a day basic skills to keep mothers and babies alive – how incredible to think how many people she has helped – just through one person. Just £20 keeps a volunteer midwife in Sierra Leone for a week. Amazing. More information about them can be found here on their website: www.vso.org.uk

So finally, if you can sponsor us we would be really grateful. We have some really fantastic sponsorship opportunities if any companies want to get involved, (we will do anything for cash, and wear your logo whilst we do it!) and will be running some great events, raffles, skydives (that’s Charlotte!) etc. We will update these pages as often as we can with details of what we are doing and how our training is progressing!

THANK YOU

Helen and Charlotte